South West tourism: boosted by the return of the Staycation?

It's a positive outlook for tourism numbers in the South West, according to hotel and leisure associate director Gary Hooper, who looks at the return of the staycation and its impact on the region.

During
the depths of the recession, we saw the rise of the Staycation, where UK
holidaymakers chose destinations at home rather than travel overseas, largely
due to the weak pound significantly pushing up costs.Now, with the alarming increase in terrorism
in Europe and elsewhere, the Staycation is making headlines again. According to recent research carried out by
Travelzoo, the majority of Britons are now putting safety ahead of
affordability and good weather when it comes to choosing a holiday, and opting
to stay closer to home.

The
same poll revealed that the UK was the most popular destination, chosen by 27%
of respondents, followed by Spain (21%) and France (10%). Clearly, this is good news for the South West
which receives the largest proportion of domestic tourism trips and the highest
spend out of the UK’s regions, at 15% and 17% respectively (VisitBritain).We anticipate that this positive effect will
be felt across all sectors of the region’s hospitality businesses.

Equally
encouraging is the 2015 data from the GB Domestic Tourism Survey.This showed a rise in the number of trips to
the South West region of almost 14% last year, to 19.6m, while spending was
also up by a similar percentage, to £4.4bn. In
fact, nearly one in five (19%) of all bed nights across Britain were taken in
the South West during 2015, while spend amounted to 18% of the total UK figure,
all of which only serves to highlight the South West’s importance to the country’s
tourism industry.